With the competition season now over, and the days getting colder and darker, it can be difficult to find the motivation to exercise and ride.
My advice to help you get off the couch this winter is to try and work out what motivates you as an individual.
Motivation is specific to a course of action, so being motivated to do one thing doesn’t mean you are motivated to do something else. Some people, for example, may be motivated to ride over winter, but have simply no motivation to exercise. One way to successfully chip away at your goals is to build and define importance for each one, and then tackle them individually.
Generally, a person is either extrinsically motivated or intrinsically motivated. Extrinsic, otherwise known as external motivation, kickstarts action. It drives you to do things for tangible rewards or pressures, and not because you specifically enjoy it or believe it is a good thing to do.
Extrinsic motivation often focuses people on the reward, and not so much the action or journey itself.
Extrinsic motivation is used if your main goal is, say, to win a prize at a competition. If your riding coach tells you that you need to improve your fitness to win, but you don’t value rider fitness, then it would be extrinsic motivation that kickstarts your exercise regime. However, when the tangible reward (such as the competition) is no longer there, you are likely to lose motivation.
Motivation to change comes down to you really wanting it. If someone else wants it for you, rather than you wanting it for yourself, the chances of long-term success are reduced.
It’s like trying to change a smoker. Unless that person is internally motivated to quit, nagging them to become smoke-free is pointless.
If you make a change because of an outside influence, and because you feel you should, then you are likely to fail in the long-term. However, if you make a change because internally you really want to, then you are more likely to succeed.
Intrinsic motivation is a stronger and longer-lasting form of motivation, and occurs when you are motivated by internal factors. Intrinsic motivation drives you to do something because it is important to you, regardless of the reward or outcome. You would be intrinsically motivated, for example, if you exercised to improve your health, or to have more energy and vigour for riding.
If you value the importance of exercise and are internally motivated, then you will enjoy the journey and won’t be focused on the end reward.
Often the things you are intrinsically motivated to do will be aligned with your own values and beliefs.
As a health and fitness coach and a mother of four, I am constantly motivating people. Clients come to me because they are extrinsically motivated, whether it is because their doctor has said they need to improve health, or they want to lose weight due to someone commenting about their size. It is often extrinsic motivation that influences people to start exercising, but it will always be intrinsic motivation that keeps them going.
Once clients start with me, I try to trigger their internal drive by encouraging them to develop healthy habits. Once they experience the amazing feeling of being healthy and fit, it usually ignites their internal motivation.
From my experiences of training thousands of clients, it is often the people who have been active in the past who are more likely to be intrinsically motivated. Unfortunately, clients who have lived a life of sedentary behaviour don’t seem to value their health as much. These types of clients are far more challenging when it comes to igniting an internal drive.
Younger people and kids are usually extrinsically motivated, and will have their eye on the prize, rather than the journey of self-improvement. The good news is that younger people are easier to influence in regards to motivation, because they are more open-minded than their older counterparts.
Last winter, my kids lost the motivation to ride, and I had to use extrinsic motivation to kick-start them back into action, until their intrinsic motivation was ignited.
To do this, I took them to a pony club competition, at a time when their ponies were only getting exercised once a week. As expected, the other riders on their trained ponies were not only having more fun, but were doing really well, whilst our ponies were misbehaving and underperforming. With my kids listening, I asked some of the high-achieving kids: “How often do you train your pony?” Their responses ranged from three to five times a week. This got my kids thinking about how well their ponies performed in the summer, when they rode them often. When they thought about all the enjoyment they got from their ponies when they regularly trained them, it triggered their intrinsic motivation to ride more regularly. This winter, I intend to enter them in more competitions, and it will be interesting to see if history repeats itself.
It is important to understand that motivation is not fixed, and can fluctuate over time. It needs regular attention and maintenance. Most people will experience days or even weeks where motivation has declined, and this is a time when extrinsic motivation can work.
My advice is to enter a fun run or take part in one of the winter horse show series, as having a goal really does kick-start motivation.
In summary, being motivated by external factors can be effective in the short term if motivation has declined or you need a kickstart. However, if you are motivated internally, YOU will have a better chance of succeeding over the cold winter months and into the future.
- This article was first published in the May 2019 issue of NZ Horse & Pony magazine
